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Trio win physics Nobel for quantum mechanics work

Scientists from France, US, Austria scientists win Nobel Prize for discoveries that paved way for quantum computers, networks

By AFP
October 04, 2022
Members of the Nobel Committee for Physics (Bottom L-R) Eva Olsson, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Ellegren and Thors Hans Hansson announce the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics winners (On display L-R) French experimental physicist Alain Aspect, US theoretical and experimental physicist John Francis Clauser and Austrian quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 4, 2022. — AFP
Members of the Nobel Committee for Physics (Bottom L-R) Eva Olsson, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Ellegren and Thors Hans Hansson announce the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics winners (On display L-R) French experimental physicist Alain Aspect, US theoretical and experimental physicist John Francis Clauser and Austrian quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 4, 2022. — AFP

STOCKHOLM: A trio of physicists on Tuesday won the Nobel Prize for discoveries in the field of quantum mechanics that have paved the way for quantum computers, networks and secure encrypted communication.

Alain Aspect from France, John Clauser of the United States and Austria's Anton Zeilinger were honoured "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science," the jury said.

Each scientist "conducted ground-breaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated," the committee said, adding that the "results have cleared the way for new technology based upon quantum information."

The three, to share the award of 10 million Swedish kronor ($901,500), will receive the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

Last year, the academy honoured Syukuro Manabe, of Japan and the United States, and German Klaus Hasselmann for their research on climate models, while Italian Giorgio Parisi also won for his work on the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems.

The Nobel season continues this week with the announcement of the winners of the Chemistry Prize on Wednesday, followed by the much-anticipated prizes for Literature on Thursday and Peace on Friday.

Among those cited as possible Peace Prize laureates are the International Criminal Court, tasked with investigating war crimes in Ukraine, jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The Economics Prize winds things up on Monday, October 10.